So, you want to learn how you can make the most out of your BlackBerry PlayBook? Well, most of you already know that you can pair your PlayBook with your BlackBerry device using BlackBerry Bridge, giving this system double BlackBerry power, but did you know you could do more than that? RIM has posted 5 must-know tips for using your PlayBook with Bridge. Looking through the list, I can see features I didn't know existed, such as opening Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and .PDFs.

If you have multiple email accounts integrated on your BlackBerry smartphone, you’ll be presented with a consolidated inbox of all of your email accounts when you use the BlackBerry Bridge Messages application on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. If you tap the “All Messages” tab that appears in the top corner of your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you’ll be able to select a specific email account which is convenient if you receive a lot of email to multiple email addresses.

In this menu, you’ll also notice the View Folder option, which allows you to view the sent items folder of a particular email account. This is handy if you have enabled the “Hide Sent Messages” setting on your BlackBerry smartphone in the Messages options.

What if you wanted you’re sent or filed items to appear by default in your All Message list while using your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, instead of having to use the View Folder option? To do this, all you need to do is customize the message options that appear on your BlackBerry smartphone. The reason you need to edit these settings on your BlackBerry smartphone is because the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet displays your messages based on the settings you’ve specified on your BlackBerry smartphone. To review the options available to you, including how to hide sent and filed items, complete the following steps on your BlackBerry smartphone:

After saving these changes, re-open the Messages application on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and you’ll see your preferred settings take effect. Screenshots of how this screen appears on a BlackBerry 6-enabled BlackBerry smartphone are below.

Whenever you are using the Messages, Contacts, Memos, Tasks or Bridge Files applications on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you’ll notice a magnifying glass icon and a search field. When you perform a search on your BlackBerry tablet, it’s the same as doing a search while using your BlackBerry smartphone. If you want to perform a remote search of your email accounts, you’ll need to do this using your BlackBerry smartphone, as the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet does not currently support remote email search. If you aren’t familiar with the remote search option and want to learn more, check out KB15161 – How to perform a remote search for email messages.

Something to note is that if your BlackBerry smartphone is activated on a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, BlackBerry Bridge will not save attachments to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The attachment will instead be saved to the microSD™ card on your BlackBerry smartphone. If your BlackBerry smartphone isn’t activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, attachments will be saved on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

When you are using BlackBerry Bridge Files, you’ll be able to access files located on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and the microSD card of your BlackBerry smartphone. File types supported by BlackBerry Bridge Files currently are:

If you have a lot of contacts and want to add images to their contact cards on your BlackBerry smartphone, you can use BlackBerry Messenger or Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones to do this automatically! To learn more about how this features works, click on one of the links below, depending on which application you are using on your BlackBerry smartphone: